tooldad's Forum Topics

I have a student in one of my advanced woods classes wanting to build a cedar toy box. He needs a soft close mechanism for safety.
Any suggestions on what the best type and value would be?
any links would be appreciated.
thanks!

Our dining area has great oak 2 1/4” hardwood floor. There is a light stain, however it is just the top coat that is scratched. We had a floor guy out and he said a light buffing and poly is all it needed since the only damage is where the chairs are.
Has anyone attempted this before? How low of sandpaper should I go 150 or just 220?...

Wondering if a small tree chipper would turn my small long scrap into useable mulch. I have 3 acres, just hate trimming around all the trees. Mulch gets expensive every year.
We rough cut lumber in the shop 1/4-1/2” wider for the planer then final jointer and table saw to finish size. This generates a lot of 1/2” x 3/4” s...

Our 30 year old unisaw finally bit the dust. We repaired the motor in December, for it only to last 3 months and burn up again.
Finally my administrators told me to get quotes for a new table saw. Naturally being a shop teacher I want a Sawstop. Here’s the dilema, identical saws: Powermatic 5hp = $2900. Sawstop 5hp = $4300. Grizzl...

I have a student that has some iron wood at home and wants to do his pen project using iron wood. I have not worked with it or even familiar with that type of wood. Any suggestions or tips would be appreciated.

FYI, here’s a pm I just rec’d. Obviously I didn’t reply.
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Just thought I would open discussion of all those little things that once we see or hear about we go, “dah, why didn’t I think of that?”
I’ll start…
When installing drawer fronts to the boxes, I have always aligned the front in relationship that looks good to the face frame. I then put a drywall screw in each...

Does anyone else have the Kreg Foreman Machine that could look at theirs and answer my question?
Is the control arm (handle) brackets welded to the cross bar in the back? My handle is now pivoting on that bar. My guess about the welds is the paint has not broken.
Simple fix if that is the case. Little wire brushing/dremeling and tack we...

My dad is an airplane nut, retired from the state patrol air division. I was at the naval air museum in Pensacola while on vacation and saw this propeller clock. See pic below. Obviously I know how to drill out and put an insert in, just looking for a plan, pattern, or suggestions on how to make the twists/slant/warp in the propeller.
http...

I know the guy from Eagle Lake Woodworking used a cordless drill to create a power lift for the router. Does anyone with a street or “shop” level engineering degree have any ideas what could be done to do the same with the table on the drill press.
Thanks for any input

Trying to get an opinion of the best adhesive to use in the class for the kids.
Epoxy so far has worked the best, however it takes a glue brush and wastes so much each time, great if gluing up a bunch of pen blanks, but just one is a waste.
CA is great, fast, but have had problems with it. not sticking, actually setting too quickly and st...

created a simple single drawer valet for my freshman students. In the past, have done a 2 drawer version, grain runs vertical on sides, makes sense. However on the single drawer version, it would look better for grain to run horizontal. However it creates a cross grain gluing situation.
Basics of box, sides are rabbeted for the top and bot...

I have 2 table saws at the school shop. One is setup for ripping with the standard blade and 50” rip fence, no surprises there. The other is set up most often with the 3/4” dado and I have a crosscut sled that has seen better days, but is still working.
Question is since I have 2 saws, do I rebuild/replace the sled or do I purch...

While skimming through the ebay ads for pen blanks, I came across a few that sold corian blanks. I have connections with a local countertop fabricator and I was going to check with him about his scraps if he has any. How does it cut? What do you cut it with? How does it turn? Would the carbide tip cutter do okay on this material? Does it r...

Need to build a stand for the Delta 46-700 (I think is the number) lathe. Basically a 12×36 full size lathe with no stand. Is 12” too narrow, or would one suggest I go 16” deep, or even deeper. My thoughts are, the more space on the worktop, the more crap gets piled there. Especially with teenage high school shop students.I ...

Here is a 10 min video on how to glue up a panel. It is actually 15 min, but I cut it down to 10 to fit on youtube. the students that miss the demo will take home a dvd and see the longer version. So if the transitions seem a little jumpy that’s why.

Last year we had an school pep assembly which caused us to have a shortened class period. It was also right at the time we were starting the wall shelf project in the freshman class. So I got the idea to make a project video to show start to end in 20 min. They do it on TV right? Not as easy as it looks, especially trying to get it done in a c...